USTA invites critics to join debate on proposed changes

Dick Gould, Director of Tennis at Stanford, says the USTA plan makes sense. "My own personal opinion is that the tournaments must be competitive for them to have value," he says. "I think you have to earn this in your sections and you progress from your sections into the national championships."'(Photo: Stanford University)

After facing months of backlash, the U.S. Tennis Association has started a series of seven town hall meetings over the next three months to debate recently made changes to its junior competition calendar.

The disputed changes, which were put on pause as of late October, are designed to make junior tennis more affordable to an increasingly diverse player base at the regional level, while at the same time creating an environment that fosters more intense competition at the national level.

Critics argue the changes are in conflict with the USTA's mission of growing the game.

Careful not to ignore core constituencies, the USTA agreed to temporarily suspend the proposed changes at a meeting with a group of five industry insiders on Oct. 21, until further debates could be held.

The USTA feels it was a decision that had to be made.

"It's tough to put yourself on pause," said Jon Vegosen, the USTA's Chairman of the Board and President, in a conference call last week. "But I think everybody in that room, both the five we met with and the people from the USTA, had one overriding interest: what's best for tennis?"

Industry insiders who made their case at the closed-door meeting say the proposed schedule changes slash opportunities for their kids by eliminating some national tournaments and making it tougher to qualify for others.

The USTA says it wants to grow the game at the grassroots level, not the elite level, and that the changes will help breathe life into a stagnant system.

"One of the things we hope to share is to just give everyone an understanding of why the USTA feels we need to make some changes," said Kurt Kamperman, the USTA's Chief Executive of Community Tennis, in a phone interview last week. "We only have 88,000 players in our tournament structure right now. France has 500,000 and they have one-fifth of our population. We feel like we need to do better."

Reducing travel to increase affordability for potential members is a key component of the plan.

"We want to create a structure where kids can really reach their potential without having to fly all over the country to do so," Kamperman said. "We're losing a lot of potentially great athletes to other sports because of our structure."

The USTA, alarmed at the level of opposition, has promised to consider the perspective of those who are affected by the proposed plan.

"The first thing we want to do is go and listen," Vegosen said. "Some of the people have raised concerns, and they want to share them with us. They want us to hear those, and we're anxious to do that."

Members applauded the planned meetings — the first of which was held last week in Reston, Va. — but they also feel that the USTA should do more to appease a frustrated core of customers.

"I'm hopeful that the USTA will use this as an opportunity to rebuild trust with its constituency, and that they will use this as an opportunity to develop their communications and their transparency," said Lisa Stone, concerned parent and founder of the junior tennis self-help website
parentingaces.com.

Stone's 16-year-old son Morgan, a sophomore in East Cobb, Ga., would have been negatively affected by the USTA's proposed changes had they not been paused. His biggest goal is to qualify for the national championships at Kalamazoo, Mich., next summer, but with new changes promising to restrict qualification to elite national events, his chances to qualify would be severely diminished.

Stone hopes the changes never go through.

"I have not talked to one parent, I have not talked to one coach — either junior or college coach — that is in support of these changes," she said.

But the plan does have its supporters.

"I actually like the idea," says Harold Solomon, a former French Open finalist who currently runs the Harold Solomon Tennis Institute in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "I like the idea of exclusivity, but it only works if there are enough spots at the bottom of the pyramid."

Steve Bellamy, owner of the Tennis Channel and one of the industry representatives who helped broker the pause, thinks the changes will harm the game, not help it.

"There are sectional leaders who say that there is no way they are going to add any more junior tournaments in their section," he wrote on his blog, Tennisinsiders.com. "What if you were a kid in a section who lost all this national opportunity and then your section didn't add anything back?"

Two-time Grand Slam champion Johan Kriek, who runs a junior academy in Charlotte, admits it's a "very complex issue" but doesn't like the idea of his players getting squeezed

"The system is not perfect, but don't cut the tournaments," Kriek says. "Nobody has the magic sauce."

The USTA is keen to listen to people such as Kriek, but it also wants the chance to help them understand that its plan has merit.

"I view it very much as a dialogue," Vegosen said. "At the same time we also think that there are some misperceptions out there and some misinformation, and (the town hall meetings) also provide us with an opportunity to share where that has occurred."

"My own personal opinion is that the tournaments must be competitive for them to have value," he said in a phone interview. "I think you have to earn this in your sections and you progress from your sections into the national championships."

If the proposed plan resumes in 2014, elite junior events such as the USTA National Championships at Kalamazoo, Mich., would be reduced from 192-player to 128-player fields. Gould is fine with that.

"I just can't see a national championship larger than 128," he said, adding, "They are selective. Is that wrong? I don't think so."

Critics fear that it will make it sufficiently harder for those aspiring to college or professional tennis to be seen by coaches scouting for talent.

"Is it the right move?" asks John Whitlinger, Stanford's men's tennis head coach. "I don't know. I just hate to see opportunities taken away."

Whitlinger, in his ninth year at Stanford, thinks attending events as prestigious as Kalamazoo or the women's nationals in San Diego could stimulate a young player's development. Even if a player gets whipped, he says, the experience can facilitate growth.

"One, it gets you motivated, and two, it makes you a better player," he said. "If you're not one of the better players, you get to watch the best players in the country."

Whitlinger also notes that coaches from budget-strapped colleges don't have the funds to travel all around the country to see players. They rely on big events like Kalamazoo to scout young talent. If the draws are smaller, the chance to find a diamond in the rough is smaller, too.

"Sometimes you go to an event and you are looking at a few people," he says, "and all of the sudden what really stands out is the person playing the people you are looking at."

Stone sees opportunities for her son to flourish as a player dwindling.

"I think the opportunities to be seen are going to shrink," she says.

Because college rosters are often filled by non-American players, Stone feels squeezed in more ways than one.

With interest level peaking, there couldn't be a better time for the USTA to open its doors and invite parents and coaches to join the debate.

"We need to look at the system from top to bottom," Kriek says.

As debate swirls over policies, one thing everybody agrees on is that sharing ideas can never be bad.

"I think that the more communication the better in every aspect,' Solomon says. "It will help stop people from becoming disenfranchised."

Before it sets out to engage in what promises to be heated debate, the USTA wants to make it clear that it is looking at the big picture.

"By 2020 more than 50% of kids 18 and under (in the USA) are going to be multicultural," Vegosen said. "We're looking at this from a much broader perspective — not just the people who are in the game, but also more long term, who do we want to get into the game to really grow the game and have opportunities for everybody?"

But with parties on both sides eager to be heard, Vegosen maintains that everything is on the table.

"We're going out there to listen," he said.

Meanwhile, members such as Stone are proceeding with caution.

"I'm really happy that the USTA has agreed to hit the pause button," she said, adding, "I don't know how much confidence I have that anything is going to change."